A glimpse into the dark side

A colleague who I’ll call “Deep Throat” once worked as a salesperson for a large pharmaceutical company. D.T. has since renounced the dark side and now works for the forces of good, but, oh, the tales he has to tell about drug companies and their many methods of influencing doctors to prescribe, prescribe prescribe.

One of Deep’s stories that disturbed me (the truth is: they all disturbed me) was how drug companies begin their campaign to win the hearts and minds of doctors by targeting them while they’re still in medical school, plying them with gifts and perks, laying the groundwork for long medical careers in cahoots with giant international drug companies. Just consider this: the average doctor prescribes the same drugs he “learned to prescribe” in medical school for a full five years once he’s in practice. So getting a new doc “hooked” early is a good strategy for any drug company.

Recently I came across the antidote to that story when I saw an article in the Seattle Times about a Complementary and Alternative Medicine Camp for medical students. The “camp” is actually a 60-hour seminar conducted at Bastyr University, an academic center near Seattle, Washington, dedicated to training doctors of natural medicine.

The camp is not intended to convince medical students to become alternative medical practitioners. Instead, it’s designed to simply give them a general idea of alternative options and techniques. The seminar includes botanical field trips, lessons on cooking whole-foods, acupuncture demonstrations, and lectures on naturopathic medicine.

And comments by the camp attendees are encouraging. One student said that he had no intention of becoming a naturopathic doctor because he felt an M.D. gets more respect, but he wanted to be able to discuss alternative therapies if his patients ask about them. Another said that she wanted to learn to treat the “whole person.” And another said that he eventually hoped to open a practice that would incorporate both mainstream and alternative medicine.

Dr. Joseph Chu, a Bastyr administrator and an M.D., noted that doctors are becoming more open to the ideas of natural medicine because they need to keep up with their patients who are inquiring about it. He specifically pointed to the Internet as an agent of this change, with numerous web sites informing patients of their options and freeing them to be more independent in their attitudes about treatment.

HmmmI wonder if he gets the e-Alert.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute